


Late July

by kittybenzedrine



Series: Timelines [49]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Crime, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Murder, Theft, unlikely friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-01 11:42:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18799654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittybenzedrine/pseuds/kittybenzedrine
Summary: Ren pulls off at a rest stop one sunny day to stretch her legs after a long drive. There, she meets a man named Leo who's soaked in someone else's blood and has an interesting story to tell._____All pieces of the Timelines series are standalones and can be read without context.





	Late July

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the song 'Late July' by Shakey Graves. Some parts of the story are based on the song.
> 
> I imagine this taking place sometime in the 70's.

Ren’s legs are _killing_ her. She’s been driving for hours and her legs ache like she’s been running a marathon. No, like she’s already run it and it’s the day after. Muscles singing with aches and the muscles stiff and tired. She doesn’t just want to pull off on the highway to walk around, there’s too many weirdos around and she doesn’t want to risk a cop stopping her.

It seems like today is her lucky day, though. She passes by a sign advertising a rest stop a mile ahead, and keeps her eye out for it.

There’s a small public bus parked there, she finds as she turns in. Oddly enough it has out of state plates and doesn’t seem to have anyone in it. Not really any passengers around either. A lone man sits on a picnic table in the shade though, staring out into the grass surrounding the small concrete parking area. Hesitantly, Ren gets out of the car and closes the door.

Ren would probably think the stranger was a woman if he wasn’t so broad. His hair is long, so long he looks like he might be sitting on the ends of it, but his shoulders are wide and he doesn’t have the same delicate shape that women tend to. He’s stock still, facing away from her, eyes trained firmly on the tall grass swaying in the breeze.

She approaches the man like a hunter creeping up on its prey, though stray rocks crunch under her feet, so he has to know she’s here. He’s staring at something in particular, she thinks as she gets closer, trying to follow his eyes. But the grass is too tall, and she doesn’t see it until she’s almost next to the stranger.

“Oh my god,” she breathes, seeing what she presumes is the bus driver, face down and soaked in red. “Is he okay? Do I-”

Her voice peters out as she looks to the stranger, meeting his eyes. He’s absolutely soaked in blood, his shirt sprayed in it. There’s even a few splashes of red up on his face. A quick glance down confirms that there’s a handgun tucked neatly into his waistband.

“Oh,” she murmurs, glancing out to the dead driver. “I guess neither of you need any help, then?”

There’s a brief, humorless sound from him. “No, not particularly.”

Ren nods, staring at the driver for a good, long moment. The breeze washes through once more, ruffling her skirt before dropping it limp back around her knees. Not wanting to be shot in the back for witnessing this and then trying to flee, she opts to go around him and climbs up onto the table next to him.

“This where you ever imagined you’d be?” she asks, glancing over to him.

“No.”

He’s brief, and doesn’t add anything else. After the silence stretches on long enough to be awkward, she nods in agreement.

“Me either. But crime is pretty unforgiving. Once you start, there’s no going back.”

The stranger grunts, but it sounds like understanding. This probably isn’t his first crime. Probably not even his first murder, judging by the way he hasn’t bothered to clean any of the blood off of himself.

“I’m Renee,” she offers, hoping to get him to pipe up. She has a strong feeling if she tries to leave at all, she’s going to be the next person in that field. Best to stay and talk. “You got a name?”

“Leo.”

Monosyllabic. Hard to work with, but workable nonetheless. It’s probably a bad question to ask, but she asks it anyway. “Any particular reason you shot that bus driver? And sorry for asking so many questions, my brain doesn’t work all that good.”

Leo stares at the corpse, shifting to cross his boots at the ankle. “He saw your car. Started running to flag you down for help. I’m not too keen on getting caught, and you looked like a cop from a ways back.”

“You’ve got a gun,” she points out. “I don’t think I’d be doing much helping for him.”

There’s a small snort from him. “Smart gal.”

More silence follows. Ren steals a few glances at him, taking in his appearance. He hasn’t shaved in days probably, judging by the patchy black scruff on his face. Hasn’t showered in a while either. He smells of stale sweat and his hair is starting to get greasy at the roots. Clothes rumpled. Hands faintly trembling like it’s been a good bit since he’s eaten anything. This Leo has been on the move for quite some time.

“So, you said you’re not keen on getting caught,” she says, crossing her own ankles. “Which implies that shooting his bus driver isn’t the only thing you’ve done. You willing to share?”

Leo adjusts his jacket. Ren isn’t sure, but she thinks he’s making a point to expose his handgun just a little more.

“My wife died about six years ago,” he starts, staring out at the bus driver’s limp corpse. “I grieved, but eventually, I decided it was time to move on. I was doing no service to her memory by sitting at home, wallowing in my own pity and drinking myself to death.”

Leo shakes his head a little, putting his hand behind him and leaning back. “I was still grieving though, didn’t have a care in the world about any of those girl’s feelings. Dated a few at a time. Ended up somewhat dating two girls at once, both wretched women that I couldn’t stand but kept around for the company.

“One was a gold digger, plain and simple. She only got with me because she knew for a fact I had a good deal of money. The other was a snake, though not as bad as the gold digger. They both ended up finding out about each other after a few months and were both justifiably pissed at me, but neither left even when I refused to be faithful to just one. I told the both of them _I_ didn’t want anything serious, but they knew what _they_ wanted.

“Snake lady eventually got ahold of my savings, drained most of my money and bragged to the gold digger that she was having my child. Which was odd-” he notes, glancing at Ren,”-seeing as I had never slept with her. She often got drunk at my house and passed out, and would find herself nicely tucked into my bed in the morning. Guess she presumed if I was enough of a sleaze to cheat, then I was enough of a sleaze to take advantage of her. And before you ask, no, I didn’t. I put her to bed and nothing else.”

He takes a moment to scratch at the blood drying on his face, eyes unfocused and blankly gazing out at the horizon. “Gold digger didn’t like that. I _had_ slept with that one, and she didn’t like the thought of her easy paycheck being diverted to a bastard child. So there was a big fight on my front lawn, big and messy, and I didn’t hear from the snake again after that. But the gold digger thought she’d proved herself in my eyes, thought she made herself look like the best material. Somehow got ahold of the rest of my money in a short time after driving off Patricia.”

“Patricia?” Ren asks.

“The snake. Anyhow. I took that gold digger to the church right up the road and married her a week later. Nice little affair, her in a white dress and me in my nicest shirt. Two days later, I killed her, stuffed her in a dumpster, took my money, and ran.” Leo shrugs his shoulders, gestures towards both the bus and the dead driver. “And now here I am. On the run. I held up the driver when the bus was empty and made him drive. Been going like this for four days until we needed to pull over so the both of us could stretch, breathe a little fresh air. Then you pulled up, and,” he motions towards the handgun.

She makes a face. “The gold digger,” she starts, “I’m guessing she’s Nancy Collins? She’s been all over the news lately. Shot, cut up, stuffed in a dumpster behind a butcher’s shop, and her husband named suspect of interest. One who just… up and disappeared.”

He gives her a nod and nothing else.

Ren sits in silence with him for a long while, watching the scenery. It’s pretty beautiful out here, with the long grass and trees everywhere. Flowers on the breeze. The sun warming the skin on her bare arms, her legs. Even if there’s a corpse in the dirt, it’s wonderful.

“My tale isn’t as grand,” she tells him with a little laugh. She feels like she should share. “Like I said, my brain doesn’t work that good. My brother’s friend is a therapist and thinks I’m either bipolar or borderline, but he hasn’t seen me in his office so he doesn’t know for sure.” She shrugs. “But I’m a little crazy. Really impulsive, and I don’t have a good handle on my emotions.

“Basically, it started with me crashing two of my brother’s cars at seventeen. I crashed one, he got a new one, and I crashed that second one a few weeks later. I was drunk that second time. So drunk I’m surprised I was even able to turn the damn thing on. I didn’t have a license, still don’t, so there were that many more charges when the police came. I was scared, so I ran after my brother bailed me out. It’s been a chain reaction from there out.”

“It always is,” Leo agrees.

“Lots of theft, and I mean _a lot_. I’ve stolen food, clothes, jewelry, electronics, cars.” She jerks her thumb over her shoulder. “I stole that car, in fact. I take anything I can get my hands on. Broke into a lot of houses to steal their shit to pawn, broke some stuff just because I liked the thrill. Stolen drugs too, sold ‘em to make some cash to barter with when need be. I got a few joints on me I’m willing to share, by the way, if you wanna partake at any point.”  
“Maybe later.”

Ren nods. “If they catch me and tally up everything I’ve done, all the theft and property damage, the breaking and entering, I’m probably looking at life from all those charges.”

“They want to give me the chair, I’ve heard.”

Once more, she nods. “They do.”

Somewhere off in the distance, thunder rolls. The sky is still bright, though, so she thinks it might just be heat lightning. Still. She doesn’t want to be sitting here if the sky decides the open up. There’s still the problem of his man with a gun however, and she’s not comfortable enough to get up and walk away.

“Still thinking of shooting me?” she asks, letting her eyes drift to the bus driver. He probably died fast and clean, but it probably also hurt like hell before he passed.

“Less so than when you pulled up.”

Ren hums to herself. “Not very assuring, but I’ll take it. God, I’ve been on a roll of stupid decisions for years now. I should have just cut my losses and straightened up at seventeen. Man, if you shoot me, can you make it quick?” She glances over at him. “And like, bury me? I don’t want some corpse-fucker to come along and… do his thing, you know?”

Leo lets out another amused sound, the corner of his mouth briefly quirking upward. “Let the corpse-fucker have his fun. Not like you’ll need the body.”

Another bout of quiet passes after she laughs at his joke, and she takes it as a reassuring sign that he hasn’t reached for his gun. Yet. Maybe he won’t kill her after all? She’s hopeful, but he did just make the joke about leaving her dead body. Fuck. Fuck, she might actually die.

“Fuck it,” he rumbles out. “While _I’m_ already on a roll of doing absolutely stupid things, do you want to come with me?” Leo asks, finally turning to face her. “And I mean it. I’m thinking of turning the bus around and driving to Mexico. Maybe going further south from there, I don’t know, deeper into South America where no one will think to look. Grow and sell some of that good grass like you’ve got in your skirt pocket. Have some fun together instead of having to be lonely. We’re both already fucked if we get caught, so why not?”

She blinks at him. He killed his gold-digging wife, he just admitted as much to her. Murdered her in cold blood, and he’s still covered in the blood of the innocent bus driver that’s on the ground only a few yards away. Gun still right there in his waistband. Who’s to say he won’t kill Ren too? She’s nothing but a liability to him at this moment.

But what else has she got? If- when?- she ends up getting caught for good, no matter what kind of plea deals she takes, she’s going to spend most, if not all of her life in prison. She’s only twenty-three. That’s no way to spend her life. She can’t go home, she has nowhere else to turn, no one to go to. There’s nothing.

“Okay,” she agrees, reaching out and taking the hand he offers. “Yeah. I- I have a friend. He can hook us up, repaint the bus and get us some fake plates. We can go to Mexico. I think the guy I stole this car from was gonna kill someone, ‘cause there’s a lot of weird shit in the trunk. You want me to help you bury the bus driver? It’ll throw off the trail if they can’t find him.”

“You seem to know what you’re doing,” Leo points out, finally sliding off of the table and getting to his feet.

Ren shrugs, getting up herself. “Theft and burglary aren’t my only crimes. You hang around shady folks enough, you have to pull your weight. I haven’t killed anyone personally, but I’ve helped bury a few bodies.” She gestures towards her car, pulling the keys from her skirt pocket with her free hand. “Want me to get the shovel? Daylight’s burning.”

Leo eyes her. The quiet stretches on for the thousandth time, and after a moment he reaches for the gun in his waistband. But he merely readjusts it, and gives her something akin to a smile.

“Sure. Get the shovel.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have no explanation for myself. It was cooler in my head. I also write this all within a few hours and had to force myself not to pass out, so any and all errors are sleep-deprivation's fault! 
> 
> I'm always super appreciative of comments and kudos, it's great to hear from you folks!
> 
> I have [my blog](http://iwillpooponthefloor.tumblr.com) on tumblr, if you'd like to check that out, though it's mostly unrelated content. I'm not active much on there, but I'll get back to you if you message me!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
